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Sheriff’s deputies responding to a domestic disturbance call at a residence on Via Gennita on 3/6 fatally shot resident Donald George after he failed to comply with the deputies’ requests that he drop a gun he was holding. At one point, George pointed the weapon directly at a deputy. The three deputies, who are currently on administrative leave, fired 11 rounds, striking George several times. George died during surgery at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. Neighbors claimed George had been suffering with a brain tumor, and that this had made him despondent as of late, but to what degree his medical condition could have influenced his actions remains unclear.

At a press conference the following day, Sheriff Bill Brown confirmed that George’s gun was loaded at the time. Though Brown said investigators did not know enough to say whether the incident constituted an instance of “suicide by cop,” he could verify that the officers had acted appropriately given the situation, noting that public safety is always a priority when a person is wielding a gun. “This is something that they’re having to make split-second decisions on, and in this case it was very, very tragic and very, very unfortunate, but all indications are that they acted appropriately,” Brown said. Finally, Brown noted that there had been no indication of prior domestic troubles at George’s house.

CLARIFICATION: The Independent would like to clarify that though the Sheriff’s Department termed the incident that initially drew them the George’s home as a domestic disturbance, Mrs. George’s call resulted from her wanting to prevent her husband’s suicide and not spousal abuse or other kind of domestic violence more often associated with the term “domestic disturbance.”

sevendolphins, you seem to be so interested by the time and amount of shots fired, much like a child staring at a shiny object. Why are you such a narrow minded person that you take one miniscule fact in a large event and make a sweeping assessment? You keep repeating it throughout your posts and tout it as being some hugely important fact that proves your point. There were three deputies, which could mean each fired 3 or 4 shots. Not an unrealistic occurrence in an officer involved shooting. Try doing some research on the matter before you spout off. But then again that doesn't matter to you. You also seem fascinated about the time, 8AM, like a child at Disneyland. What would you have liked them to do when the wife called 911 at 8AM, "Oh sorry it is to early for any trouble, please call back after 3PM, thank you". Your arguments are moronic and seem to lack any base of intelligent comprehension. I nominate you as the village idiot...

Yes, in the calm of 8am, after his wife was safely whisked away, with birds chirping and gardeners starting to push wheelbarrows around, 11 shots fired by deputies are fired into one depressed man who happens to pay the salaries of the deputies.

And the deputies' own organization undertakes an investigation. Will anyone believe it? Why not let a neutral party investigate?

Dude, you are wierd. 11 shots "pumped" into him. Sounds so systematic, so choreographed. Do you write ads for the DNC or something? You put such an artistic flair to your drivel..

You may the only one out there who views a man pointing a gun at you as a tax paying citizen instead of a danger.

I am sad for his family. I am sad that his disease caused him to do this. I am sad that he died the way he did. I am sad that you choose to damn the Deputies with self righteous indignation. Maybe you should move on and stop kicking grown ups in the shin.

Well said azuresees... but I predict he/she will respond, It was 8AM, everyone knows you can't shoot 11 shots at 8AM, eveything else about the incident does not matter, it was 8AM and 11 shoots were fired. Sevendolphins rests his/her case, clearly everyone can grasp the importance of 8AM and 11 shoots were fired, that sort of thing just can not happen at 8AM....... 11 shots....

sevendolphins---just as firefighters are the only ones who are paid to walk INTO fire, law enforcement officers are not trained or paid to "take cover" in the face of an armed man in a residential neighborhood. It is not solely their own safety they are paid to protect but the community's. All the MMQBs would be singing another tune had the Deputies "taken cover" and allowed the armed man to roam the neighborhood and other "taxpaying" [does that really matter??] residents were hurt or killed. I think it's called "damned if you do damned if you don't".

Well, bs99, the deputies did not take cover, so we'll never know, will we? That was their mistake.

Was their any evidence that he was about to roam the neighborhood?

There was evidence that he was about to shoot *himself*. Shooting him dead with 11 bullets does not seem to me to be a better fate for the man.

Are the deputies playing tackle football against taxpayers? I hope not. There is no quarterbacking going on here at all. There are just some folks who pay 50% of their income to the government and don't want to worry that a deputy with bad judgement are going to shoot them. There has been so much corruption in the Sherriffs in this County... millions unaccounted for from the Sheriff's Council, a sex offender as a deputy, internal lawsuits over mistreatment of one faction by another faction.

There are a lot of terrific deputies too. They are the ones hurt worst by incidents like this.

7 how do you now the deputies didn't take cover? And what is the definition of cover, I know you don't know what that is. You are talking about concealment (different than cover) and that does nothing to defend against a firearm. And was there evidecne that he wasn't going to roam the neighborhood? And MMQB is a term, he doesn't think you are playing football, jeez what a moron you are...

You're so thoughtful, ITK, I did just what SBSO did, and investigated myself. I found that I did know what cover is: a place from which >95% of the body is covered by materials that can stop a bullet from a firearm.

Whatever MMQB is, it is totally inappropriate, unless you want to imply that deputies tackle and beat the s--t out of taxpayers.

And what material can stop a bullet, taxpayer? And football players don't beat the s--t out of each other, they tackle each other. And wasn't that what you wanted the deputies to do insted of shoot him 8 times at 11AM (opps!!! got the #'s wrong you don't write them enough for me to remember)MMQB is an acroynm meaning Monday Morning Quarterbacking. It is a take off from when people second guess plays from a football game that happened on Sunday. It means that you are second guessing someone else. Are you really that stupid of a taxpayer? I polled myself and 95% of us think you are.

Well, ITK, playing football as a defensive lineman happens to be something I did for a few years, at the college level. I think you have a naive view of what happens there.

Nice to see you have some multiple-personality issues, perhaps you should get some psych testing yourself. I suppose you'll need a majority vote among your personalities.

Anybody who thinks that a situation where a despondent homeowner in a quiet neighborhood at 8am in the morning ends up with 11 slugs in their body (or their home) need not be scrutinized by any taxpayer who wishes to do so doesn't understand America.

7D your instant judgement on the situation with out showing any prudence is what is most disheartneing. You started with your first comment condeming the Sheriff department and have since continued. It is obvious that you have a hatred for them for an unknown reason there by scewing your point of view. The fact that everyone that has posted here finds your comments off base does not clue you in that you might be wrong.

My, ITK, you are one sensitive fellow. I went back and read my first post, and it expressed neither condemnation nor hatred. I have no problem being the single voice standing up for scrutiny of a public agency that shoots a taxpayer to death with 11 shots at 8am in the morning in a calm residential neighborhood.

I sure hope our Sheriff's department has tougher folks than you, who don't flinch and panic at a little healthy scrutiny.

Here are your statements that prove my point "3 deputies with a total of 3 years experience between them? Yikes. I do feel sorry for them. I also hope they leave the Sheriff's department. They are dangerous fellows. Well, the deputies have made me good and afraid of them. I just hope they don't shoot me to death for looking scared of them. I think the deputies lost their cool"

"Everyone knows that the Sheriff's department views taxpayers as the opposing team that they are playing football against. There has been so much corruption in the Sherriffs in this County"

ITK, you are so sensitive. There is no hatred or condemnation in those remarks, and a substantial amount of telling it like it is. There has been a lot of corruption here... the Sheriff's Council was one source, and then there was good old Honey. Now maybe a whole lot less than some other places, and also, there have been and always will be a lot of good deputies here too.

Hey, are you saying they are not dangerous? They'd better be, but we want them to be a danger to the meth heads and gangsters. What is bad is when a homeowner gets shot 11 times at 8am in a residential area. And yes, I realize it is a really, really hard job.

Then there is this whole phrase `Monday Morning Quaterbacking', which implies that the sheriffs view the taxpayer as an opposing team. The taxpayers and the sheriff are on the same team, my friend, and the critic of the sheriff's department is their best friend, because the critic helps the department get better and not diverge into worse corruption and violence. It is the lax folks who always say `never mind' who allow the department to descend in level.

So 7dolphins you change your screen name to snugspot and pretend to be someone else???? That seems pathetic. All one has to do is view the stories that you have posted on in the past and see the same style and text you use are the same. Plus the idiom "Monday Morning Quarterbacking" has nothing to do with "an opposing team". It has already been explained to you (again how I know you are the same person), but you seem not to listen so here it is AGAIN another definition (taken from a dictionary of idioms) for you. Boy you are a moron:

a Monday morning quarterback (American) someone who says how an event or problem should have been dealt with, after other people have already dealt with it. A person who criticizes or passes judgment with benefit of hindsight. Example: "It's easy to be a Monday morning quarterback when you see the kids' low test scores, but there are no easy answers to improving education."

This is such baloney! How many times have we heard or read of a peace officer (1) putting himself in danger and then (2) having to kill another person to rescue himself (the officer) from the dangerous situation? We've seen cops step in front of cars and order them to stop; when the car continued, the driver was killed. We've seen a CHP officer confront a deranged Viet Nam war vet with a sword and then shoot him dead because the cop was in danger. In danger from 40 feet with a sword?

There are too many times when officers stupidly put themselves in danger and then require deadly force to save themselves. Then, invariably, the killing is ruled "justifiable homicide." What a sham! When will officers be trained not to do the bonehead thing that will require them to do another bonehead thing to rescue themselves?

Finally, the reporters on this story have done little more than parrot the official low (oops! Freudian slip) LAW enforcement version. There probably was a much more complex story here but, hey, let's just write it off as "suicide by cop."